It’s been many years since the arrival of a new Van Morrison album was considered a notable event—these days, like several other survivors from rock’s golden era, he’s likely to slap together whatever he’s got on hand and quietly toss it out there, hoping that his old fans will find out about it. Versatile, the Irish bard’s 38th studio album in all, is a good one for that, continuing where its predecessor, Roll With the Punches, left off, by mining the Great American Songbook instead of vintage R&B and adding in six new Morrison compositions just to reassure those returnees that he can still write a song. Among those, “Broken Record,” which opens the session, is the keeper, a swinging affair that could easily be mistaken for a late ‘40s jumper were it not for the singer’s trademark repetitions of the title phrase (how appropriate) and distinctively non-traditional phrasing. However, the standards are the true heart of the release. Although everyone from Bob Dylan to Rod Stewart to Willie Nelson to Carly Simon have given tunes by the likes of Cole Porter and the Gershwins a go, Morrison frees himself up to have fun with them, even while bowing respectfully. His take on Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh’s “Let’s Get Lost” provides a more jubilant alternative to Chet Baker’s rendition, and to marvel at him extending a syllable over a couple more bars than others would even think to—in “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” of all songs—is to remember why there is simply no one else like him.